To Love A Shadowhunter
by Hisa-Ai
Summary: "You love a shadowhunter the way you love anyone else: fiercely, without limits. Passionately, with everything that you have. Because they, more than anyone, will love you exactly like that; they don't know any other way to love. As long as you love them the same, it will work out, I promise."


**This was inspired by the song** _Love Like Crazy_ **by Lee Brice.**

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 _To Love A Shadowhunter_

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*.*.*.*.*

Alec was _late_.

It wasn't rare for the Shadowhunter to run behind because of work things, of course, wasn't rare that he would get caught up with a mission or paperwork or would get stuck in a meeting or a conversation he couldn't get away from, but it _was_ rare for him to not text before he was going to be late. And Magnus felt his blood pressure rising with anxiety at that thought as the seconds ticked by and there was still no sign of or text or call from his husband, but it was quelled finally when his phone dinged with a text from him.

 _Sorry, running late, got stuck listening to Lucy try to convince me to let her go out on this vamp investigation with Simon; you can really tell she's related to Jace some days._

Ah, Magnus should have figured. They'd only recently returned to New York, and the clave had tasked Alec with taking over the Institute once again; it never ran as smoothly, they had claimed, as it had back when Alec had been running it in his youth. Which was a bald faced lie and Alexander knew as much, but he was more than happy to take over and get the place back in order all the same. Truly, Magnus knew some part of Alec would always yearn for those years, for the time he spent there with his friends, his family. His loved ones might have passed—a downfall of choosing to share in Magnus' immortality, unfortunately—and he and Magnus might have moved on from New York, but the city would always hold a part of Alec's very heart and soul. Magnus knew he was very much so happy to be back and running it.

"No more than five years," Alec had promised Magnus, had warned the Clave. He might have had eternity, but he didn't want to spend every moment of forever stuck at the institute. It would be all well and good to revisit his past, relive his youth for a bit, but they would have to move on again soon enough. The world was big, and everchanging, and neither of them much wanted to miss out on it for too long, despite how much the Institute meant to Alec.

Magnus took his martini from the bartender then, and made his way over to a booth to wait for Alec to arrive; he would either be too long or not long at all, depending on Lucy, a descendant of Jace and Clary—she was a dead ringer for Biscuit, but her personality was _all_ Jace, and Magnus knew how hard that was on Alec some days; he missed his parabatai more than Magnus would ever understand, but he… coped. He had never quite been the same since Jace's passing, but he was still Magnus' Alexander, at the end of whatever easy or hard day that it was, and that was all that Magnus could ever hope or ask for.

Magnus didn't mind waiting for Alec to arrive, he decided then; indeed, it was nice to sit and relax and watch his people, even if he didn't recognize every face in the crowd, they were still his people, and New York was still his home, and God, was it good to be home. Alexander wasn't the only one who had missed the city, who had left part of himself there when they'd left so long ago.

"Sorry, we don't mean to intrude," a gaggle of young warlocks and seelies that Magnus didn't recognize had made their way to his booth while he had been lost in thought, were standing around and behind the one of them who was brave enough to speak to him. Magnus raised a curious eyebrow, took a sip of his martini as the young man continued. "But… you're, like… _The_ Magnus Bane, aren't you?" he asked, in absolute awe as he asked the question.

"The one and only," Magnus replied, martini glass back on the table, eyes flittering over the group of them; they all seemed so… starstruck. It was going to take him some time to readjust to the vibe in New York, to being greeted like, well, like this.

"I _knew it,"_ a voice whispered from the back of the group, sending them all into a whispering fit that lasted just long enough for Magnus to raise another eyebrow at them that silenced them all almost instantly.

"Is there… something I can help you with?" Magnus asked, _sure_ they were going to ask for help with some spell or potion or another. And Magnus would have been more than _happy_ to help them…

During business hours and _not_ during date night.

Alexander really did know when to take his time sometimes, Magnus thought then; this might have been avoided if he only knew how to get out of work on time every now and then.

"Tell him," one of the girls said, shoving the ringleader, who blushed suddenly.

"It's stupid," he murmured, and Magnus was suddenly _intrigued_. He had gone from brave and confident to a shy, blushing mess in a second flat, with no warning whatsoever…

 _(Maybe Alexander had some descendants of his own he'd failed to mention…)_

"Ah, it's a matter of the heart, I take it?" Magnus ventured then, when no one else said anything.

A collective gasp was let out, as though Magnus had just performed some amazing feat or another. They were so young, so… innocent, Magnus was almost jealous, for an instant. But they would learn to read people soon enough themselves, and they would know just how _obvious_ they were. They wouldn't always find such a simple task so amazing, and that alone quelled the jealousy.

"He's in _love_ ," someone offered.

"Shush," the ringleader said, offering up a hard glare to the rest of them, who all smiled in amusement, shaking their heads and tutting at him in good humor.

He turned back to Magnus, then, and nodded. "It's… there's a shadowhunter, and, well, everyone knows the stories, you know? About you and Alec Lightwood, who isn't just a shadowhunter, but who's _the_ shadowhunter and I… how do you make it work? How have you two been together for so long and make it look so _easy_? How do you love a **_shadowhunter_**?"

And Magnus was stunned into silence in a way Alec could never find out about then; all that time had passed and still, his own kind thought it odd—impossible, even—to love a shadowhunter. It was still seen to be such a task that they felt it necessary to seek expert advice on the matter. As far as they had come, they still had further yet to go.

"It's… well, it's never been _easy_ ," Magnus admitted, when he had his thoughts fully collected. "But Alexander… he's _worth it._ It was extremely difficult in the beginning, when we had to fight to be together because of the clave, because of rules, because of me being a warlock, because of me being immortal… He gave up his very mortality for me—imagine loving someone so much you agree to spend forever with them, you agree to let yourself watch your loved ones die while you stay the same. He had to watch his _parabatai_ die, had to bid him farewell knowing he would not be able to greet him in the next life; he lost half of his soul on the day that Jace died, but still, he has never for a _moment_ had an ounce of regret for being with me. It's…" he trailed off, licked his bottom lip in thought. God, Alec really _had_ given up everything for him, hadn't he? He knew that—of course he did—but sometimes, after so much time had passed, it was easy to forget, was easy to overlook.

 _(God, he loved Alexander. More than anything. More than should be allowed or should be possible. And Alec somehow loved **him** just as much. What had he **ever** done to deserve him?)_

"You love a shadowhunter the way you love anyone else: fiercely, without limits. Passionately, with everything that you have. Because they, more than anyone, will love you exactly like that; they don't know any other way to love. As long as you love them the same, it _will_ work out, I promise," he finished stubbornly, sternly.

The group looked dumbfounded, taking in every word that Magnus had said, and perhaps it had been _too_ much, perhaps they hadn't been talking about the true, once in a lifetime sort of love that he had with Alec, but something much more innocent. Perhaps they were looking for fun, not intensity. But shadowhunters, Magnus knew more than anyone, were more likely to love deeply, strongly, than in passing. If they weren't willing to give a shadowhunter everything that they were… they had no business trying to be with one. (He was only a _little_ biased in saying as much, he would admit.)

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Alec said suddenly, walking up to the booth and sliding in next to Magnus to press a kiss to his cheek in the silence, casting a look between the warlock and the group in front of him with a sort of curiosity about him. Magnus could tell he both wanted to ask and didn't at the same time, just on the line of wondering if it was worth it to ask or if he should let it slip by unnoticed. Which would be better for his curiosity, and which would be better for their date night, and which should he choose.

 _(Alec really **was** an open book, more often than not.)_

"All's forgiven," Magnus chimed, patting Alec's face lovingly in a way that Alec still leaned into, even all these years later, distracting him from having to make a decision. "Did you get it all sorted out with Lucy?"

"Yeah," Alec nodded, rolled his eyes. "I told her she could go, but if she does anything stupid she's benched for a month; I told Simon he's to tell me every idiotic thing that she does out there, and you _do_ remember how he felt about Jace, right?" he asked with a sly grin on his face.

"Hard to forget," Magnus snorted. "He'll tell you _everything_."

"Every single little detail," Alec nodded. "Which is the plan. Jace would _want_ me to give her a hard time, to make sure she's made of the right stuff, you know?"

"She's related to Jace, as far as shadowhunters go… she's made of decent enough stuff. Shame she's not related to you, then she'd _really_ be made of the right stuff. Pity for the clave you're not straight..."

Alec let out a laugh at that, leaned over to nuzzle at Magnus' neck playfully, and when Magnus glanced over finally, their audience, his little fan club, was gone, hopefully off somewhere mulling over his words of wisdom.

Which was just as well. Because the night was still young, and he and Alec had a lot of catching up to do with this city of theirs that they had first fallen in love in oh so very long ago.

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End file.
